Joe Arpaio Still Mulling Over a Run for Governor; Claims to Have "Secret" Plan to Fix Budget

The guy in the hat, Joe Arpaio, thinks he's got what it takes to be governor.

Maricopa County's brown-bashing sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is still considering a run for governor, and as luck should have it, he's got a super-secret plan to help ease the state out of its budget woes.

He says we'll have to wait for him to announce his candidacy before he dazzles us all with his economic prowess.

There have been rumors for months that Arpaio was considering running, and he's often included in gubernatorial primary polls against other possible Republican candidates, all of whom the sheriff believes he could beat.

"I'll take my resume and put it against anybody in this state where I've been in private business. I've been in the Army...I met with ambassadors. I can go on and on," the sheriff tells KTAR.

We have no doubt in the sheriff's ability to "go on and on" when seated in front of the media but being in the Army -- something almost any 18-year-old American can do -- and having met the occasional ambassador, aren't on the list of gubernatorial qualifications, as far as we can tell.

It does remind us of Joe's "meeting" with one of our own heads of state, though.

In November, Arpaio ambushed Vice President Joe Biden at a Phoenix hotel for an uninvited photo-op. The White House later told New Times that Arpaio was never invited to meet Biden but showed up anyway. After the ambush, Arpaio tweeted: "Just got done meeting with the Vice President of the United States."

Interesting definition of the word "meeting." We're curious how all those "meetings" with ambassadors actually went down.

Arpaio says the key to being governor is having the support of the people.

"If you get the people behind you, which I sure have, I think that's the real secret weapon to get things done. And if they trust the person, have confidence in that person, you can move mountains," he says.

There is a silver lining if Joe were to run. He would have to quit his gig as Maricopa County's top cop and the county's Board of Supervisors would get to pick his successor.